The lawmakers had dinner with the president to talk about fiscal issues.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Pat Toomey, a fiscal hawk who has made a name for himself in his Republican caucus on budget issues, Wednesday evening broke bread — and perhaps gridlock — with President Barack Obama.

The junior senator from Pennsylvania was among a dozen upper-chamber Republicans invited to meet with Obama for a private dinner at the Jefferson Hotel, a small luxury hotel several blocks from the White House.

Toomey described the meeting as a "pleasant, constructive, cordial discussion" but said they didn't break any new ground.

"I don't think that was achieved or that was the goal. We weren't there to negotiate a deal, but to have a discussion to find common ground and discuss a process on the big fiscal challenges," he said in a brief phone interview after the dinner. There was an indication "that there will be a chance for further exchange and we'll see where it goes."

Obama called Toomey in the afternoon for a preview of their discussion that largely focused on the fiscal crises that have hamstrung Washington for the last several years.

Toomey's inclusion is not surprising. Since his first days in the Senate, he has made clear that matters of the debt and deficit are his highest legislative priority. And though the former president of the anti-tax Club for Growth maintains conservative views of limited government, he's worked in the last three years to show a pragmatic side.

Additionally, he has a seat on the dais of the major Senate committees pertaining to fiscal issues, including the tax-writing Finance Committee and the Budget Committee, which sets spending levels. His colleagues picked him to serve as chairman of the Republican Steering Committee, which outlines the conservative policy agenda.

He was also on the select 12-member supercommittee tasked with finding ways to reduce the deficit. Its failure to do so set in motion the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester. Toomey was credited by some at the time with writing the official GOP proposal that included some additional revenue.

Toomey stressed to Obama during their phone conversation, and said he would be reiterating over dinner, his pursuit of a tax reform package that would include closing certain deductions and loopholes while also lowering the marginal tax rate.

Obama favors closing the loopholes but not lowering the tax rate, because Democrats — who won the fiscal cliff debate to let Bush-era tax cuts for the richest 1 percent expire — have little interest in lowering income taxes, especially for the wealthiest income earners.

"I made it very clear that you don't get growth unless you lower marginal rates, and let me just say it did not seem like that was a fruitless path to pursue," Toomey said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon.

Obama paid for the more than two-hour dinner, which the White House said included Toomey and fellow GOP Sens. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bob Corker of Tennessee and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Dan Coats of Indiana, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, John Hoeven of North Dakota and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.

Obama's direct outreach to Republicans comes after a public relations effort on the sequester in which Obama tried to get the public to put pressure on Congress to avert the spending cuts.

The president has lofty legislative goals for his second term and needs to soften relationships with Republicans to break through the gridlock and bitter rhetoric that have stymied Washington in recent years.

"There's clearly a bit of optics going on. The knock on [Obama] is that he doesn't reach out enough to form relationships," said Chris Borick, Muhlenberg College political science professor. "If you're looking to do that and saying, 'Who do I need to cultivate relationships with,' Toomey stands out as someone who has cachet on those issues."

Toomey said he is willing to work with the president on fiscal issues if the president is willing to work with Republicans.

The senator declined to speculate on Obama's motives for calling the dinner meeting, but said that with the sequester outcome not going the president's way, "reaching out and meeting with members of the Senate who are engaged in these issues might be a constructive way to go forward."

Obama plans to make a rare trip to Capitol Hill next week to meet separately with the Democratic and Republican caucuses in the House and Senate, according to an afternoon White House press release.